thinkbroadband

O2 pays £30 million for The Link stores
Wednesday 21 June 2006 10:04:00 by
Andrew Ferguson

The Link has 300 stores around the UK selling mobile phones, and O2 is now to pay £30 million to takeover the chain from the Dixons store group. More details BBC News Online.

This fits into broadband news, since yesterday O2 paid £50 million for the LLU provider Be, who have around 10,000 customers spread over 150 exchanges. With O2 acquiring a high street
presence it puts them into head to head competition with Carphone Warehouse (Talk Talk) and Orange.

While all three providers look set to share the high street, they may appeal to slightly different sectors of the market, Talk Talk is competing very much on the bottom line price, Orange is
driving towards broadband forming the homes main communications link, e.g. OnePhone and video over broadband, finally O2/Be currently command the speed demon area. We've not mentioned Bulldog as
they are withdrawing from the retail sector, and how their products sit in the market will depend on the service providers who purchase their forthcoming wholesale services - though if these are
not launched soon the competition may prove too fierce.